Anthropomorphic Animals inhabits HBO again

HBO’s adult animated comedy Animals returns for a 10-episode Season 3 at 10:30 p.m. Friday. Adult? You bet. Your first clue is that the series airs at 10:30 p.m. All the munchkins should be tucked snugly in bed by then, having drifted off while you read them selected passages of Bedtime for Frances or The Wuggie Norple Story. Truth be told, I’m sound asleep by that hour myself, so I’ll use the DVR for playback during daylight hours. Or catch up on HBO On Demand, where the first two seasons are also available. Portions of Animals (which began life as a series of Web shorts) will set off some sensitive folks’ crassness alarms, but if you are in the exclusive niche that enjoys wacky, weird, quirky and quixotic comedy, then Animals is for you. Created by Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano — who voice many of the characters — the series “ventures into the nether regions of Earth’s least inhabitable environment, New York.” Here’s the scoop. Apocalyptic events (Virus X) at the end of Season 2 killed off the entire human population of New York. That means the city is now home to a diverse crew of downtrodden anthropomorphic critters. They include lovelorn rats, gender-bending pigeons and aging bedbugs in the midst of a midlife crisis. HBO tells us that while they may not be people, “the awkward small talk, moral ambiguity and existential woes of non-human urbanites prove remarkably similar to those of humans.” Or as one critic put… [Read full story]